Michael was completely stunned to see a gigantic ship like the Silent Reaper diving in and out of the water like a huge whale. He couldn't help but wonder how the pirates on the Silent Reaper survived the dive without getting thrown into the sea.
The resemblance to the Flying Dutchman, the overwhelming fear on Lars's crew members' faces, the way Lars himself trying to get away from the Silent Reaper showed Michael that there's something aerie about the ship.
??
However, his full focus was on the chest that contained 3 million worth of goodies for now. As the god himself was bringing down his wrath on them, a ferocious storm surrounded them. In the distance, Michael could vaguely see a dark devastating tornado coming in their direction. A navel fight in the middle of a storm was not how he expected to spend this day.
"It's diving!" Lars screamed, his voice contained nothing but fear. It made Lars completely ignore Michael who was chasing around the chest full of his retirement fund.
"What the fuck?!" On the other end of the ship, Gaya was holding a wooden pole to steady herself when she saw the Silent Reaper slowly sinking into the water. "What kind of ship could jump in and out of the sea?" She thought.
"Captain, get us away from that ghost ship!" The momentarily pause of not getting attacked by the Silent Reaper made the crew members take a breath. They shouted at Lars to save them.
"Got ya" The moment the ship stopped violently shaking, Michael grabbed the chest.
"Stop him!"
"That's ours!"
Boom!
Just when some of the crew members were shouting at Michael for grabbing the chest, another loud booming sound reverberated the sea.
The ship began to vibrate as soon the vibration turned into violent shakes.
Whhhoooooooosh!
The next moment, the Silent Reaper jumped out of the sea just a couple of meters away from them. The seawater displaced by the Silent Reaper drenched and even threw some of the crew members out of the ship.
The Silent Reaper cast a huge dark shadow over the Striker. Due to its enormous size, the Striker looked so weak and tiny in front of it.
The figurehead of a Reaper holding a scythe looked down on everyone on the Striker as they all lost their courage to fight. In this close, they all knew the Silent Reaper could fire some of its front cannons to completely destroy them without even giving them a chance to escape.
Only Michael stared at the Silent Reaper with curiosity and wonder without showing any fear on his face.
"This is perfect" he mumbled, staring at the figurehead of the Reaper holding a scythe. The dark greyish sails, the black hull, and its almost 200 feet length made his eyes sparkle. Already in his mind, he started to imagine Captaining the Silent Reaper, living a pirate life.
He ignored the worn-out-looking hull, the rust-covered cannons poking through the hull, and the ship's old condition itself. All he had in his mind was becoming the captain of the Silent Reaper. This ship instantly stole his heart.
"Surrender or Die" soon, a deep voice sounded from the Silent Reaper. It felt like the ship itself was talking to them as the crew dropped the cutlasses, they had no courage to fight against the Silent Reaper.
Soon after they all dropped their weapons, the Silent Reaper slowly turned sidewards revealing its 25 broadside cannons that could obliterate the Strike in one go. The Striker was small for Michael to get a look at the crew of the Silent Reaper. While he was craning his head, a plank was thrown to the Striker from the Silent Reaper.
[Firewall activated...]
[Blocking telepathic attack from the Silent Reaper!]
Michael suddenly heard the system's warnings inside his head. The warnings made sense. The Lars's crew were so quick to give up all their hope and courage, now Michael knew why. Something from the Silent Reaper had terrified them, just like his Fear toxin except the Silent Reaper seemed to be meddling with minds telepathically.
Michael quickly turned his gaze away from the ship top Gaya. There was indeed fear in her eyes but she didn't look pale or terrified like the rest of the crew.
"System, can you block the Silent Reaper from playing with Gaya's mind?"
[Subordinate Gaya has enough mental strength to fight off the telepathic signals coming from the Silent Reaper]
"Fuck my luck" Lars mumbled before walking the plant to the Silent Reaper. Although he seemed less affected by the Silent Reaper, he was definitely not Captain Lars that Michael met before. One by one the crew members began to follow Captain Lars.
"Let's go" Michael waved at Gaya.
"What the fuck just happened? First, they wanted to destroy this ship and now want everyone to surrender? And did you notice how miserable the crew became after that weird voice sounded from the ship?" She rapidly fired questions at Michael.
"Come on let's go" Gaya was slightly surprised to see the excitement on his face. He looked like a kid who's going to his favorite place.
"You're awfully excited," She asked, joining the line of the crew walking the plant to the Silent Reaper.
"The chest?"
"Inside my space ring," he answered Gaya while walking.
"Trouble really follows us huh? First, those Southern jerks wanted to buy us and now, a freaky ass ship wants us to get onboard" she had to raise her voice a bit because of the thunderclaps. Also, they had to walk carefully as the storm was powerful enough to push them down into the sea from the wood plank they were walking on.
"I need to cut this freakin 'hair" Michael cursed his shoulder-length hair when it became wet and flew across his eyes, blocking his vision.
In a battle, if his hair blacked his vision even for a split second, he would die. He would be a laughing stock if he died because of his long hair.
"Move faster" Michael almost pushed the one walking in front of him. He wanted to get the view of the Silent Repear's crew because he really wondered whether he would meet Davy Jones himself or not.
A few minutes later, Michael finally saw the crew he was waiting for. The remaining crew including Lars was surrounded by a group of dirty greasy pirates who smelled like rotten fish. The crew of the Silent Reaper came in all sizes including midgets to 7ft tall giants. They were all human unlike Michael anticipated, there was no octopus-faced crew member.
The Silent Reaper crew didn't wear any distinctive clothes but ragged dirty clothes.
"I had to say, I'm kinda disappointed," Michael said to himself. Considering the Silent Reaper looked and functioned very similar to the Flying Dutchman, he was kinda expecting to meet a crew resembling the Flying Dutchman's too. Yet, instead of those terrifying crew, he was welcomed by a crew that could be compared to Captain Barbossa's and Jack Sparrow's crews.
The Silent Reaper's crew was licking their lips staring at Gaya. They seemed like starving dogs. Both Michael and Gaya ignored these dirty pirates. They just wanted to see how the situation is going to play out before revealing their secret.
"Welcome to the Silent Reaper" taking his gaze away from the crew, Michael turned his head in the direction of the voice to see a tall muscular man towards them. He had dark skin as an African male, he stood almost 6' 2" feet. This black man had an authoritative feel about him, and he had a scar running across from his left upper eye to his right cheek.
One couldn't see a single hair on his clean-shaven head, he had pierced both earlobes. The thigh-sized arms looked like they could crush a man to death while his torso had defined muscles. He was neither wearing something fancy nor dirty ragged like the rest of the crew but just a short-sleeved transparent tunic and khaki color breeches. He was accompanied by two cutlasses that hung on each side of his waist.
He had the perfect thick voice for his muscular body. His dark eyes scanned everyone on board for a few seconds before they landed on Gaya and Michael.
"What do ye pirates...want?" Lars interrupted the man's gaze by stepping forward after mustering all his courage to do so.
"Look 'ere Cap'n, a fearless one" a bald man standing only 4ft laughed at Lars. Soon, the rest of the Silent Reaper crew cackled.
"What can ye offer, Cap'n lars o' the Striker?" the black man asked with an amusing smile on his face.
"3 million worth o' pillage, in exchange fer me an' me crews' lives' ' Lars turned his head to look at Michael who was standing among his crew.
Michael smiled. He didn't think Lars actually noticed the chest taken by him. Following Lars's words, every pair of eyes on the ship fell on Michael and Gaya.
"Interestin' offer an' interestin' people" the black man said,
"ye took a lass on board, no wonder ye ended to the sky in our sight" the short man had a surprised look on his face.
"ye don't take a lass onboard, they be bad luck" another one of the crew members exclaimed. This one had a bald head, a greasy beard, and teeth that were so dirty that it would make even an aged dentist raise his brows.
The black man signaled his men to let Michael and Gaya come forward.
"No one steals from me" just when he was walking past Lars, he said in a husky voice.
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